yoeddynz

You have a look in your little black book and get back to us all here at the camp.

We could all get our purchasing fix by buying stuff for you? It would be just like xmas...sort of. You get some presents of which you wont know what they are until you arrive home. But you have to pay for them. We get the thrill of sorting through random car parts and guessing what you might like IN FACT! how about this idea.... SECRET SWAPMEET SANTA! Everyone from oldschool who turns up gives $5 to one of the others. They then have to go out and find the most absurd, freaky, weird, funny random thing they think might suit their designated gift receiver. Gifts are handed out at the BBQ afterwards. Hopefully @ThePog will be there with his Ian the bus and a bbq.....

Yeah its a bloody good event to put on and went down well! Scroll down this page here to see what went on ...

I think you two fellas need to meet. Andy- I reckon now is about the time you need a little English car full of character. I look forward to seeing you at lawn bowls!

Cool. Hey also folks of Nelson. If you want please print off some of these. Then you can place one under a wiper of any suitable old classics you spot while out and about- anything you think might fit the bill here

Who in Nelson is coming along to the swap meet then? .. List time @sidewaysickness @Slacker_Sam. @ThePog @footey @Willdat? @Transom @ynot @AttySlungGatty @scooters @Paulluap @2sik25 @nzvohc @JasonO @Gozza @anglia4 @GMH63 @moparmuppet and any one else you think might like to come along, to buy some random stuff you don't really need and have a BBQ (hopefully in the shade of Dylans bus), maybe a beer. Please do put the word out! Discuss here. Also- any ideas on good road trips within our fine locality, nice pubs to go to etc? Put it up here.

Naughty boy.... planting seeds like that....

You guys have all the Fun

^ well at least your Bimmer is a nice classic brown colour. Looks quite lightweight too. I remember the cold afternoons washing down my Rx3 well.... I can almost hear the rust process now. Even worse was the cold day I decided I'd better get some waxoyl into the sills etc to protect it. I had to keep the container in a bucket of hot water so it would flow. Damn it was a messy horrid job. But at least it was then protected. Here's a frosty road covered in salty scum, waiting for a little bit of water to turn it into an old car attacking solution ....

I will soon be entering the OCD zone. I am preparing for an afternoon of much deliberation and careful planning. It wont be perfect and will end up getting changed over time but I have to start somewhere. 'Start what though' you say?... Organising my boot is what, for I have 'compartmentalised' my boot floor area. I have been planning this job for ages and looking forward to it. Since getting the car back on the road the various tools, jack, spares have been rattling about in the back, wedged with towels so they don't slide across side to side when taking corners at great speed (20mph..). Without a false floor in place it meant that the level of the folded down rear seat was higher than the current floor. This is just unsatisfactory and will not do! Hannah had already made a lid for the battery box so that was sorted now. No batteries will be falling out when we do barrel rolls for laughs. So to the floor. Take one sheet of hardwood ply. Mark out. Cut. Trial fit. Mark again. Cut again. Trial fit. Mark some more...cut again...... I ended up with this nice level floor... With little compartments which I can now carefully compile tools, jack and spares and then stow them neatly away into... Hannah has been painting the old floor and we'll put some sound deadening down before the plywood goes back in for good. Then last week storm hit us but I think we came off fairly lightly at our local beach 3 km down the road. There is normally a nice wee beach over to the left of this photo... Not far from crossing the main road in... With the horrid weather that morning Hannah decided to drive rather than ride her treadly. I got a phone call 5 minutes later... "the car has stopped... its just cut out. Now the battery is dead" I drove down in the van with another battery and found her in the Viva with waves lapping at the wheels. It wasn't full tide yet and the waves were coming in quick. Most of the places along the front there got waves into their yards later on. We pushed it up the road, swapped the battery and it started straight away. I suspect one of the big salty puddles Hannah drove through splashed over the dizzy and shorted it out. Then with a couple of minutes to dry off from engine heat it was fine again. Further up the road she had to drive it through a 30 meter section a foot deep of seawater. Poor little car! So when it returned home, storm now past, I spent a good deal of time giving the whole car a good rinsing off... Then wd40 into any areas I deemed they needed it. This all reminded me so much of the days spent in the UK with my Rx3 where I would carefully hose it all down after a winter drive if they had salted the roads. The car would never seem to dry out at all in winter though. I dont miss road salt. Not one bit!

Coil packs new don't cost much either. I just used a secondhand pack from a misti. Take a spare on long journeys if you're worried but really.. anything could can fail on your car if you start stressing about perceived reliability. Proper full efficient engine management for the win.

I was running a pretty safe 40 advance on V6. If it were me I'd remove your dizzy and run a coil pack. You're so close, but not quite there, to having a really efficient setup. I Dont think anyone will cry if they lift your bonnet and cant see an ugly dizzy sitting there. You can always put it all back to factory if you needed. I'm guessing you need something in the hole to drive the oil pump though? Or does the dizzy drive off the oil pump? I know nothing about these engines.

And disconnect the Vac advance line? Weights etc? Or remove the dizzy, blank the hole, run direct ignition for a cleaner setup and one less gap to jump

That's a fun job in this weather....

I took that photo thinking of you. But didn't ask about it. @nzvohc can probably ask him.

I'll have a look- I've used that stuff before but dont have any. Certainly smells a tad nicer than petrol....

Good idea. I'll give it a go. Hopefully it wont mark the flawless paint beneath.... Or at least some sort of adjustable potting mix.

Enjoying the lovely simplicity of the little 1159 for now. Perfect car for the beaches we cant be bothered to ride to or shopping etc. Still gets nice comments every time out. Hannah jokes that we have to add 10minutes onto every journey to allow for the conversations with folk about the car. In other news a few weeks ago my brother and I met up in Tapawara with our friend Andre who has a lovely Firenza Droopsnoot and a HB GT. We jumped in his car and travelled out to a place near Murchison where a fella has a few old Vauxhalls and Bedfords siitting in the bush. There's a Viva HB sitting there and luckily Andre had covered it with a tarp a couple of years back to keep it better protected. We both needed parts off it. There were also a huge amount of sandflies and they wanted us. So we covered ourselves in Deet and cracked on with parts removal.. I scored this lot. Very happy with it. All very much needed! First bits to be fitted were the vents. Hannah cleaned them up and swapped them over. Now we have working vents that can be closed. All last winter we'd have to stuff rags in the holes to stop the cold air. They are grey, not green as the originals but they'll go quite well with what will most likely end up as a red based interior colour scheme. Next job was the bumper. The one my brother managed to get off the parts car is in good condition but for a slightly dull finish. It also has two holes where spot light brackets had been mounted. Not really noticeable and anyway- I now have a front bumper. Hannah took charge of this job too. She cleaned it up, wire brushed the surface rust away from the back and treated it, followed with a coat of paint. Then she fitted it and the only photo I have is of her cleaning it after fitting... Next job to happen will be sort the door locks..which don't lock.. then swap the quarter windows over. The new ones have proper good seals in them. My current ones don't have seals at all.. Then the door cards. One of the ones we grabbed was really warped. I had an idea. Hannah soaked it with a hose until it was sopping wet and then we squashed it flat between two sturdy bits of plywood. I have been moving it about and its slowly dried out nice and flat. Happy with that outcome. We have also taken on some pretty extensive scientific road testing. When one goes out in experimental sports cars like this with a 30kg bag of potting mix parcel taped onto the bonnet you are bound to get a few odd looks. Which we did. I have also confirmed three things... One : The extra weight does indeed affect the steering somewhat, but not in a huge way. Enough though to lose the easy turning of the steering wheel with one hand and make the twistys more of an effort. Two : It was really noticeable how the extra weight mounted up high promoted extra roll at the front in corners. From this I have deduced through some clipboard scribblings and man maths that I will mount the next new engine below the bonnet line, as per original... Three : Brown parcel tape makes a sticky mess that nothing seems to touch easily. I now have vertical stripes on my front wings. (really, they should be called guards. But Blighty terminology eh) Now I have to spend some time cleaning the marks off to return the car back to its former glory!

Apparently they do almost slot in with only slight mods to the sump. But if I'm to spend monies on a cert I'd rather do a more modern engine. I just love the look of twinks. But I do like datsun engines and Bart would forever be my friend. He might even say nice things about my English car (like "shitty car..but nice motor Alex") Once the freight is added on it starts escalating quickly from my budget. Fuck God damn I wish I'd clicked 'buy now' on the auction listing for the complete setup from your anglia the fella bought off you. $500 for everything!!! Bugger.

I'm happy to just let things happen. I e been terribly busy myself... Busy 40 hour weeks of bike rides, gardening, beaches etc. Summer things. But yeah.. Whoever in the tasman region fancies organising meets feel free. Go for it. Post ideas up here. I figure the next meet point will be at the vintage car club swap meet. It gets better every year and it's always hot and sunny. After that I reckon we need to do a day's lawn bowls mentioned recently. Was very popular. I'll ask the club.

Find me one cheap Pete with single mass please.

Mean pulse bro. So whens it coming down to the better island? Go for some hoons on Takaka hill!

Pretty much what he ^ said.

I should be there. Buying old car magazines.

I have a GDI Mitsi Legnum coming in tomorrow with what the owner suspects is a coil pack issue. Hmmmmmmm. Luckily he only needs the car a while longer and will then flick it off. I'm not even going to touch the inlet. Its common place in the UK to get your car de-coked now. They use little mirrors and dentist picks etc. How the fuck would one avoid shit dropping in ? I guess a decent vacuum and some luck? That carbon stuff doesnt compress well so it would only take a little bit to be sat on a valve and get squashed against a seat so destroying the seal? Apparently the later gen BMW minis are terrible with this. Ha- my dad would laugh. He used to have to do a regular de-coke on his Morris Minor. Come full circle (except without the leaks)